In a Funk Over Politics?: Get Into a Groove Instead to Protect Your Mental Health

Have you been in a funk over politics lately, constantly checking the news headlines to see if our nation will survive this bitter political season?

If you live in the United States, you probably are worried about the election and the potential for political violence. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 80% of Americans fear the country is spiraling out of control into chaos, and 84% are concerned that extremists will commit acts of violence after the election. That survey was taken immediately after the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Trump, who has for years spouted violent, threatening rhetoric against Americans he considers his enemies.

I don’t think that we’ve ever had an election cycle in the history of our country where one of the parties is running a convicted felon who is holding onto to a cult following that believes the big lie that the election was stolen. We’ve never had the kind of hate, name calling, mudslinging, and lies we’ve seen since Trump came on the scene. With the exception of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, America has always had a peaceful transfer of power — until the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump extremists.

I also know lifelong Democrats who feel like they’ve been lied to about President Biden’s fitness and capacity to be president after he dropped out of the race. Then there’s Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for radical right-wing change if Trump wins again and takes control of all branches of government. It’s absolutely frightening. Yet there are glimmers of hope. In the same poll, just 5% of respondents said it was acceptable for someone in their political party to commit violence to achieve a political goal, down from 12% in a June 2023 Reuters/Ipsos poll.

We are not designed to live in a constant state of fear, worry, and stress. As I’ve discussed many times, chronic stress takes a toll on our hearts, minds, and bodies, and it robs us of the joy we should experience in the only life we have.

If you find yourself ruminating about the future, unable to find peace, and not sleeping well, your mental health may be suffering from an overload of worry. If these worries invade your thoughts when you are drinking your morning coffee, walking, driving, or just going about your daily life, these are all signs that you need to redirect your mind toward something more wholesome — something you can do something about.

Some people walk their dog. Others read something inspirational or write in a journal. We all need to be compassionate, gentle, and intentional and set ourselves up to have peace in our hearts and minds during the next few months and after the election, because this time of turmoil affects everybody.

I recently answered a reporter’s questions about what people can do to get out from under the stress we are all facing right now.

It could be things like looking out the window, taking a walk, exercising, or talking to your best friend. It could be binge watching something fun on TV, getting your mind into a good book, or looking at travel brochures and dreaming about taking a trip, even if you have no immediate plans to travel. Write down anything and everything you can do that makes you feel good, and then pick something on the list and do it!

If you want to be involved in the political process and it’s going to make you feel good and not hopeless, do it! I’ve written a lot about how helping others helps us feel better. Anything you can do to be of service — whether it’s volunteering at an animal shelter or senior home, a food bank, a thrift store, or wherever your passion lies — will give you feelings of purpose, positivity, and agency even when things feel so out of control. Here’s a great site I learned about from the Global Compassion Coalition where you can go to get inspiring ideas for how you can help.

You can do it in little ways where you just show up with love. Doing this will make you feel like you’re in a protective bubble, where all the hate and divisiveness swirling outside can’t touch you.

I sit amongst the birds.
House finch and sparrow gather in bunches at the three feeders sunk into the soil above the wild rose bushes.
Lesser goldfinch adds a pop of lemon color to the browns, pinks, and oranges.
They swoop and land on the bo-peep hooks, drop down onto the seed ledges and posts, all a flurry of wings and chirps and squawks.
The earth below the rose bushes is moving — dozens of tiny bodies hopping and pecking.
They don’t mind me watching.
Sitting quietly, my coffee cooling.

I’m glad they allow it.
I need this time to set my heart up for the day.
A grosbeak or towhee drops in without much of a ruckus. But the scrub-jay is another story!
It causes a mass exodus — every tree and bush a refuge.

Just as the scrub-jay gets tired trying to balance where he doesn’t belong and screeches away, the songbirds drop down into view.

They never stopped singing when they skedaddled, just got out of harm’s way. I don’t mind when the scrub-jay stands on the seed suet, that’s for him.
I just wonder why all the birds can’t be home together.

I guess it’s like us.
It makes my stomach drop to know how far apart we’ve flown.

Some of us are terrified about the possibility of another Trump presidency.
Can’t fathom all the doors being slammed shut on our rights.
Our democracy in free fall.

Others see the democrats as evil.
I’ve heard them labeled as communists, socialists, even fascist, although I thought fascism was an element of the right, not the left.
A mourning dove coos from below She’s in harmony No one scatters.
Lesser goldfinch and hummingbird
take a dip in the bath There is peace here. I try to take it in
Let it expand — Imprint in me
On me
Try to quell the fear.

An old friend said that Trump was president before and nobody died, as if to say it’s going to be okay. I could have reminded her that, actually, 400,000 of us Americans perished because of his incompetence in handling the pandemic. I couldn’t get a word in; she was spitting bullets.

Bullets, guns, our daughters’ and granddaughters’ rights to their bodies and family planning, integrity of the courts, peaceful transfer of power, so much lost already.
California quail are hopping under the feeders now. They make a unique soft garbled clicking sound.

I’m thankful I have this space to watch and listen. I wish we all did. I wonder whether it would make a difference.